It's true that style points are for the fisherman, not the fish. I'd imagine that 90% of what people tie is too, atlantic salmon mixed wings being the extreme case. Somehow I am glad though, I love classic salmon flies.

And steelhead flies are funny this way. No matter if the fly is a bohemian warthog bunny banger, people always look at the compact laquered head behind the looped eye (even if it means moving bristly hair out of the way) to see if the fly is "to code". Stupid perhaps but true, tyers will go to extremes to prevent fugly head flies in some circles... not sayin' it's right, just true.

From a utilitarian perspective, particularly for SWFF, there's little need for that fancy stuff. I recently had to ask myself while looking into my flyboxes "how many sand eel patterns do I really need?" and ended up with only a couple thru all of last season. I used to carry at least 12 different sand eel patterns tied on four different hook styles. I used to carry about as many bunker patterns too, now down to two basics. From a SWFF perspective, I've gotten downright boring... but my results have been significantly improved. So simple is better in SWFF. I do like the monofilament on flats flies because it lets me wrap fugly without paying the price - it disappears when glued or wet.